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Trinity
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"Aunt Glory, what are you talking about? What betrayal? All I have done is try to protect you and the other Fae. I have done nothing to betray you."
"I only wish that were true, Trinity. I have been shown the truth. I have seen the proof. How could you do this? How could you kill my people? How could you kill my friends?"
"Who have I killed, Aunt Glory? Who am I supposed to have done these things to? I have no idea what it is that you're talking about."
I was standing there with my hands on my hips as I watched her begin to cry. She was clearly not herself. I could see it in her eyes. There was the same look in them that was in the eyes of the guards. Only it looks like Hibiscus had put more effort into bespelling Aunt Glory than into the men guarding the door.
"You killed my friends, Alloy and Sterling. You took their lives to silence them. You are the one that was behind this whole thing. You have been the one attacking my people and leaving them too afraid to leave their homes. You were the one who killed them all."
"How would I have done that, Aunt Glory? I wasn't even here when it was starting. How could I have been the one to do that?"
"It had to be you. That is the only explanation. There has never been a Fae that could control the minds of others. There has never been anyone who has been able to bespell people like you do."
"I urge you to think about this, Aunt Glory. None of what you are saying makes any sense. Alloy and Sterling aren't even dead. If that part isn't true, then, don't you think that the rest of it isn't true?" She didn't even hesitate when I said those words to her.
"I know they're dead, I was shown the proof. I don't have the heart to kill you, Trinity. I don't want to do that. But if you don't turn yourself in then, I will send all that I have after you." Her eyes were now showing me a look of pure hatred.
"Gloriana, my love, this isn't right." Trevor stepped forward. "You have to know that none of what you were told is true." I could see the pain and fear in his eyes. It was clear that his heart was hurting because of the spell that Aunt Glory was under.
"No!" She screamed at Trevor. "I trusted you. I believed you when you said you were my mate, but it was all a lie. None of it was true. You lied to me and violated me and my trust. I fell in love with you only to learn that it was all a part of your plan. Leave! Go! I never want to see you again."
The tears in Aunt Glory's eyes were starting to spill over and stream down her cheeks. She looked completely heartbroken and the sight of it all was enough to bring a tear to my eye.
"Aunt Glory?"
"Gloriana?" Trevor and I spoke at the same time.
This needed to end. There had to be a way that I could stop this from continuing. We needed to break this spell that Aunt Glory was under, and we needed her to realize that she had been lied to. But how?
I was thinking about this, about what it was that we needed to do when I saw that Aunt Glory was lifting her hand as she stared at Trevor with those hurt filled eyes.
"Go away!" She was still screaming at him, saying the same words over and over again. "Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away!"
"Gloriana?" Trevor was crying as he reached out for his mate that was literally breaking his heart with her words. "Please, Gloriana, remember what it is that we have shared. Please don't do this."
"You're the one that lied to me." She said as she finally swung that raised hand toward him.
I barely had the time to react. I barely managed to get the shield into place before the dangerous looking ball of light slammed into it, right in front of Trevor's face.
"Gloriana?" The shock in his face was enough to tell me that he never thought, not once, that she would attack him. Bespelled or not, they were still mates. No one should be able to break that bond. It was still there. It was fate.
Wait a minute. Fate? Fae? The Fae are the fairies of all the old stories. Could there be a connection here that is way too childish and cliché for my own good? I didn't know for sure, but for some reason it felt like it had to be true.
"Trevor?" I called out to him, but he ignored me. He just continued to look at his mate with incredulous eyes. "Trevor!" I called out to him again. "Trevor."
Finally, after the third time that I called Trevor's name, he looked at me. His eyes were rimmed in red, and it looked like he was about to crumble to pieces.
"Trinity?" I could tell that he was trying to ask me why this was happening to him.
"Trevor, I have an idea. I think I know how to break the spell that she is under."
"Can it be broken?" He asked me, his words squeaking a little with the emotions that were filling him.
"It can. I am sure of it."
"Then how? How do I get my Gloriana back?" He was pleading with me now and I saw how much his words were affecting those around us. "Tell me how to save her."
"We're in Fae, Trevor. Follow the way of the fairies." I smiled at him, but he didn't seem to understand what I said. "True love's kiss. You need to show her and everyone around you, that you truly love her. It should work."
"Are you sure about this, Trinity?" Reece asked me with worry in his voice.
"Not one hundred percent, but I am at least ninety-five percent sure." I nodded at him.
"That's good enough for me." I saw Trevor straighten up. He was wiping the tears from his face and gave a look that said he was going into battle.
When I looked back at Aunt Glory, it was like she was frozen, waiting for us to continue this little play that Hibiscus had set up for us.
"Aunt Glory, Trevor wants to come and apologize to you. He will bow down to you and grovel for your forgiveness." I was lying, of course, but I thought I would play to the scenario that Hibiscus had created.
"I don't want to forgive him." She spat the words at me. "He is scum."
"Then tell him that when he comes to see you." I encouraged her. "Wait until he has said his peace and then tell him. Will you allow that?" I asked her with as calm of a voice as I could manage.
"I will allow it." She turned her head up and to the side like she was scoffing at us but still agreed.
"That is good." I nodded at Trevor to encourage him onward.
As Trevor walked toward her, I kept my shield for him in place. I didn't need to have it hanging over my head if I dropped it too soon and she killed my friend and her lover. Thankfully, she didn't even look at him while he walked to her. I had no doubt in my mind that she knew where he was at all times though, she only needed to sense him with magic.
The moment that Trevor was right in front of Aunt Glory, I dropped the shield.
"Gloriana?" He said her name, causing her to turn and look at him with a look of disdain. He didn't even let her finish turning though, he put one hand around her waist and the other on the back of her head and pulled her against him so quick that he cut off her protest before she could even voice it.
"Sto-! Mmph." The sound of him muffling her words as he pressed his lips to hers was the last thing that we heard before the kiss truly got underway.
At first, I could see Aunt Glory fighting against Trevor. She was struggling to push him away from her and break the kiss. However, after a few moments she stopped pushing him and started to pull him closer.
As the kiss went on and on there was a light that could be seen building up between them. A bright, white light that looked pure and clean. By the time that Trevor had lowered his hand low enough so that he could cup his mate's slender bottom and lift her up against his chest the light was blindingly bright.
With that new closeness between Trevor and Aunt Glory, with her arms thrown around his neck as he held her in his arms, the light seemed to explode. The brilliance of that light left me reeling for a moment, unable to see as my eyes readjusted. But the kiss seemed to be over after the explosion.
"Gloriana, my love." Trevor smiled at her and I could see small little tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.
"Trevor?" Aunt Glory called her mate's name as she looked him in the eyes. "What is going on?"
Well, it appears that the spell is indeed broken, however Aunt Glory doesn't seem to remember what had happened at all.. Oh boy, this is going to be good.